Friday 7 February 2014

Review: Vengeance

Vengeance
Author: 

Publication Date: February 4th 2014  (February 13th  UK)           
~A copy was provided by Bloomsbury Childrens  via Netgalely in exchange for an honest review~
 
 

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Falcon Lake wants vengeance. And so, it seems, does someone else... An intense, heart-rending psychological thriller to accompany the chilling and seductive Fracture

When Decker drags his best friend Delaney’s lifeless body out of the frozen lake, he makes a deal: Anyone but her. Everyone but her. The lake releases her. It takes another...

All their friends blame Delaney for Carson’s death. But Decker knows the truth: Delaney is drawn to those who are dying, and she would have tried to help Carson.

Or so Decker believes until a body lies in front of him in a pool of water on his kitchen floor. Until he sees in Delaney’s eyes that she knew this would happen too – and she said nothing. Until he realises it isn’t the lake that is looking for revenge – Delaney is part of someone else’s plan.


This powerful and emotionally charged psychological thriller follows Megan Miranda’s stunning debut Fracture.
 
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The first thing I thought when finding out Fracture had a sequel: Why? The second: I can't spell Vengeance.
I liked Fracture, it was angsty and perfect and I'm a sucker for the best friends/relationship, but I didn't think it needed anything else. It was done.
Being from Decker's perspective changed a lot of what I originally thought, and I was interested in seeing where it would carry on, and since I loved him in Fracture, nothing could go wrong, right?
Nope.
Wrong.

For around...eh, I'd say 50% of the novel Decker's an ass. Okay, okay, he has a reason, and it's a really good one and all, and eventually you find the hidden reason he didn't even know himself until then, but I repeat, he was an ass. And what happened does not excuse being that much of an arsehole. One thing I agreed on with what Maya said. "Grow up." Yes, and if he would have there and then, most of the angst poor me would've been a lot less annoying. Or depressing. I mean, I get it okay? Delaney made a mistake, but so has Decker, continuously, for not listening, to not hearing her out. And yeah, she did make a mistake, a pretty big one, but it wasn't her mistake to make, and it wasn't something you could do anything about. And once he finds that out, he's still an ass. A slightly, lesser one, but still.
So, why didn't I hate him as much as I would've?
Because he's an ass that knows he's being an ass, that admits he's being an ass, and by the end he's not just the Decker I knew and loved in Fracture, but he comes out as a stronger character. He's been pushed to the limit and survived. He's also one of the most realistic male perspectives I've read, and you know how I feel about male perspectives.
The atmosphere in Vengeance is killer, waaaay creepier than Fracture, and it really is palpable and kind of suffocating that will also kind of make you think the curse of the lake is real. Which is stupid, because how can a lake be cursed? It's a running theme, and ah, it's a clever one for a certain character to play on the fears of that. The writing flowed well, and kept me wanting to read (it took me 3 hours over 3 days while reading another book at the same time) so seriously, I was addicted. And it came as a surprise how much I actually wanted this conclusion to Fracture, and it's the missing piece I didn't know I wanted either.
With shocking twists and secrets, betrayal and love, Vengeance was creepy, addictive that lets you in on not on Decker's side of the story through Fracture, .but a different side to him altogether.

 
Rating: 4/5